The marketing machine of Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley have produced yet another "Greatest Hits" package. This time it comes in the form of a 5 Disc set.

This was announced early on to be mostly rare, unreleased, live and demo material. Unfortunately most of it comes straight from the bands studio albums. When I first saw the track listing I was pretty disappointed. Being a major Kiss fan for 26 years, at first glance I could see that I already owned most of what was considered rare material. To my surprise these versions were different from what I have. Here is a run down disc by disc.

Disc1 has some of the best rare tunes in the set. The highlights are an early version of "She" which has flutes playing throughout the song. "100,000 Years" is a studio track which sound a lot like the version on "Kiss Alive". "Firehouse" has someone's voice in the control room stopping the song and having the band retake it from the top. The highlight on this disc is "Acrobat" which would be cut down and renamed "The Love Theme From Kiss" on the bands debut album. This version moves into a rocking segment that sounds a little like the beginning of "Detroit Rock City". This part of the song is full of energy and really kicks (...). Overall this disc has some quality material on it.

Disc2 has another batch of rare tunes on it. The highlights are an in the groove demo called "Doncha Hesitate". "Bad, Bad Lovin'" is an early version of "Calling Dr. Love". It is interesting to see the changes of the final product. "Love Is Blind" is a song by Gene that would have fit in perfectly on his 1978 solo album. The highlight of this disc is the demo of "God Of Thunder" which is a faster rockin' version with Paul on vocals and slightly different lyrics. Disc 1&2 are the gems of the collection.

Disc3 is where the set falls off. It is made up of mostly album tracks. This disc kicks off with the studio version of "Detroit Rock City" and is blended right in to a live version of "King Of The Night Time World". The demo version of "Radioactive" is cool. Other than that, this disc is nothing more than a "Greatest Hits" package. It really does nothing to add to the collection.

Disc4 too is not much as far as rarities. The highlights are a demo called "Time Traveler" sung by Paul. "Ain't That Peculiar" is a rare gem featuring the late Eric Carr on vocals. Written by Eric, it was an early version of what later became "Little Caesar". The studio material on this disc is actually very strong and a great representation of the band during the 80's.

Disc5 too only has a couple rare pieces. "Domino" is an early version of the song with slightly different lyrics. The disc repeats two tunes from Disc 1 - "Nothin' To Lose" and "Rock And Roll All Nite" both done live on this disc. The highlight of this disc is an anthem called "It's My Life". This song never made it on a previously release and I don't know why. One of the bands best and strongest anthems, it features Gene and Ace on vocals. This song needs to be released as a single with a video to go with it. One of the highlights in the whole set.

The Book is a great piece of information. It has comments from band members (mainly Gene and Paul) on each of the tracks in the set. It also lists when and where the song was recorded, who wrote it, played on it, produced it, and what album it appeared on. It's interesting to see who actually played on some of the songs. You might be surprised to see that as few as one band member actually played on a track that made it on an album. I would love to see a whole book on every Kiss song recorded and released but with input from "all" members past and present.

Overall Review

Missing are many rare and demo tunes such as "Sword and the Stone" and "Don't Run" which later became "Dark Light" off of "The Elder". Even the Wicked Lester album in it's entirety could have been added to the collection. Some time back I found 30 demos on Napster. Only one of those is in this collection.

A 70's concert video or DVD would have been a nice addition. But if they added too much, they would have less material for similar future releases. I wouldn't be surprised to see the band re-release their albums with added demo tracks as Motley Crue did a couple years ago.

All in all, the set in nicely packaged. Each CD has it's own cover and some cool photos of the band inside. The book is a great addition too. Over all the set is a nice addition to any Kiss collection. Even though I would have liked to see more rare material. I have to admit that Gene and Paul know how to market the band and I still admire them. But c'mon guys, you would still have enough material to keep us die hard fans spending our hard earned cash for the next twenty years, even if this whole collection was comprised of rare material.

If you're an avid Kiss fan, get the mini guitar case version. If you like Kiss but are not a collector, pick up the standard box version. If you just enjoy their music you might want to stick to the studio albums that you can pick up as you feel the need to.

We got.. well, something pretty close. While it would be pretty tough to provide for both the die-hard and casual KISS fan, this long awaited five-disc box set includes a good enough mix of KISS standards, obscure tracks, and unreleased demos to do just that. It covers everything from the eclectic sounds of Gene and Paul's pre-KISS band Wicked Lester right up to the Farewell Tour.

Granted, there aren't as many rare tracks as I had originally hoped for, but the ones we did get are excellent. The Bell Sound Studios demos of "Let Me Go Rock n' Roll" and "100,000 Years" are arguably superior to the final cuts, and "Acrobat" from the highly sought-after Live at the Daisy show blows away the previous muffled bootlegs.

The second disc offers "Doncha Hesitate," which could have been a KISS classic, "Mad Dog (better off after it evolved into "Flaming Youth"), and the strangely Beatles-esque "Love is Blind." Compared to Gene's demonic anthem from Destroyer, Paul's original (disco?!) version of "God of Thunder" is sure to raise an eyebrow. Discs three and four fall a bit short with only six rare tracks between them, some of which many fans already owned.

Disc five ends the set on a positive note with a few good tracks. The very rough cut of "Domino" with slightly different lyrics was a nice inclusion, as was "Got to Choose," which was left off the official MTV Unplugged cd. "Outromental" from the Carnival of Souls bootleg is tacked onto "Childhood's End" in a somewhat a choppy manner, but "It's My Life" from the Psycho Circus sessions rocks like KISS should. Of course, the box set has to end with "Rock n' Roll All Night," and we get the one from Alive IV. Seeing as how Alive IV will now be the Melbourne Symphony show, this may be the only track from the concert to be released.

Basically, this set serves as a career retrospective for new KISS fans while throwing the devoted followers a few scraps to hold them over until the inevitable second set. Gene has been quoted as saying that there is enough material in KISS' vaults to keep the fans happy long after the band is no more, so as long as there is a market for KISS Kaskets, you can bet there will be more to come.

My only complaint on this box set is the lack of any video (especially DVD) content. It would have been awesome to have had some high quality audio AND video of the band on DVD!

With that off my chest, on to the review. Overall, I was very pleased with the audio content of this set. They included most of the "hits" that the casual fan would appreciate, while also including some great demos and some never before released songs that the more dedicated fans would love.

The mini-guitar case and hardback book that are included with the Deluxe version is very well done. The case displays nicely, and the song-by-song commentary in the book is very interesting to read (along with some great pictures of the band!).

So if you're a casual fan, stick with the standard set. But if you're a hardcore fan like me, the Deluxe set is the way to go!

This is a very exclusive box with both demos and songs that never happend and songs that did. There are also some great live recordings from the first KISS show ever at "The Daisy" N.Y 1973. There could've been some more unusual recordings from KISS's own vaults.

This box is created as a guitar case and has a hardcover book with a KISS story and some truly awesome pictures.

If you're a true KISS fan you gotta own one of these.

/Mike

The collection is for KISS fans everywhere. The diehard fan will eat this up. There are, and probably always will be questions as to why certain demos were left out,(and to which most of them I agree with i.e., Sword and Stone, etc..) but the first two CD's plus the booklet are worth the price alone.

If you're already a die hard, you have all the albums already (like me) and could have done without as many repeat studio tracks. Overall, however, The boxed set is another reason why Paul and Gene are millionaires and I am not.